LORAIN COUNTY — “Can anyone tell me why we’re writing in cursive?” asked Laura Deery, a second-grade teacher at Washington Elementary School in Lorain.
“Write faster,” students said, “write better.”
“We were making letters up and down, left and right,” Deery said while punching with her arms. Then she swung her arms in large loopy movements as if writing a string of letters. “But cursive is wooooh.”
She asked the students to move their arms, too, like the curve in a letter u.
Even though cursive writing was dropped from Common Core state standards adopted in 2010 by the Ohio Education Board, local teachers and administrators continue its use in second and third grades.
Debe Terhar, of Cincinnati, a member of the Ohio Education Board, said some board members who approved the Common Core state standards did not realize at the time that cursive writing was dropped from the standards.
“Last month we passed a resolution that encourages and supports local school districts who want to teach cursive,” Terhar said. “We believe it is a skill that’s important for kids and for school districts to maintain.”
A former Montessori teacher who taught 3- to 6-year-olds, Terhar said cursive writing helps children developmentally because they form a connection between the hand and the brain that facilitates learning.
Connections in the brain and synapses created during cursive writing are completely different from connections made while a child is keyboarding, Terhar said.
Cursive writing requires fluidity of thought and motion, Terhar said.
“I think it’s an essential skill. The images of the brain of someone who is using cursive writing versus someone who is keyboarding show two separate pictures. It’s incredible.
“It forces you to think,” Terhar said. “And I think that’s one of the other things research has found. When a child is using cursive, they focus on their writing. They find that behaviors change. Because they are totally focused, it helps them concentrate. It’s the motion of the hand.
“I just think it’s extremely important for us to help support the development of our children,” Terhar said. “Cursive has solid research behind it for the development of kids. Our push is for literacy. We believe developing those fine motor skills will improve literacy.”
Ann Schloss, director of Academic Services at Elyria City Schools, said Wilson Fundations, a Language Arts curriculum used in Kindergarten through third grade, includes all of the stages of handwriting from simple strokes to manuscript lettering or printing, to cursive writing and keyboarding.
For explanations about Wilson Fundations and videos of classroom use, visit http://www.fundations.com/overview.aspx.
“In the Common Core, cursive has fallen off the charts,” Schloss said. “I don’t know why. I think it’s because of the new 21st century skills. We’re so much more a technology oriented society, with texting and email.
“Do I believe students should be aware of cursive? Absolutely,” Schloss said. “When we learned cursive it was such a big deal. Does it need to be as rigorous as we learned? No. I do believe in what we are doing in Elyria. We are exposing students, still, to cursive. We feel very confident that the program we have in place with the letter formation, manuscript and the cursive meets the needs of our students.”
Halena Schuster teaches cursive throughout the third grade year.
“It’s very foreign to the students coming into third grade,” Schuster said. “It’s a new form of writing. For some students who struggle with fine motor printing, we find the cursive is easier. It flows.”
To prepare students for a high tech world, the district also teaches computer skills and keyboarding from kindergarten through 12th grade, Schloss said.
The different methods of communicating link to the Founding Fathers of the United States through a John Hancock Club in Elyria.
“Of course we strive for every student to join it,” Schuster said. “There’s a book called, ‘The John Hancock Club.’ It shows the importance of learning how to sign your name in cursive. It’s your thumb print. We get a quill pen and have a big ceremony, and all of the kids sign their name in the book.”
I think it reinforces the importance of signing with your signature,” Schloss said.
“I personally look at it as a life skill,” Schuster said. “It’s something you need to do as an adult. We have a mother who bakes as a hobby. She makes a cake with a quill pen on it, and we have cake and punch.”
At Lorain City Schools, cursive is introduced in second grade and reinforced in third grade through the McGraw-Hill Wonders core reading resource, said Pamela Szegedy, executive director of teaching and learning elementary at Lorain City Schools.
For more information and a video about McGraw-Hill Wonders, visit http://esampler.mhreadingwonders.com/.
“This is part of our writing program, part of our 120 block which encompasses reading, language arts, writing, speaking and listening,” Szegedy said. “Now they’re going to be doing cursive writing.”
At a SMARTBoard at the back of the classroom with children sitting on mats nearby, Deery demonstrated following dots on cursive “i” and “t” letters about 16 inches tall. Then she asked the children who would like to try tracing the letters.
“I like that quiet hand,” Deery said, as she selected a girl to trace a cursive i. Then Deery wrote “it” on the board. “One long sweep,” she said, and asked students to guess the letters.
After the SMARTBoard activity, Deery directed the children to tables where they practiced writing in cursive and walked behind them, commenting on their work.
“Beautiful. Good job,” Deery said. “It’s a swoop under curve. Nice. Very lovely.”
“Basically cursive writing is connecting letters that they learned in kindergarten,” Szegedy said. “The main thing is they learn how to print so they can write. When I went to school I learned cursive writing as a topic in second grade, and it was reinforced in third grade. Developmentally, that’s the age you’re ready to connect those letters and you do the curving of it. I print and write. We all have our own style.
“There’s nothing in the state that says you have to do this. And it’s not a graded subject at the school level,” Szegedy said.
“Our main goal is that all this leads through the writing process.”
John Monteleone, principal of Washington Elementary, appreciated the students’ journey.
“Two years ago these little ones were having a problem figuring out upper case and lower case,” Monteleone said.
Older generations looked on learning cursive writing as a childhood milestone. In Deery’s class, Jamie Gladding, 8, and Jacob Legg, 7, see it as a novelty.
“It’s pretty easy,” Jamie said, adding she knows cursive letters j, i, t, a, c, and how to write her name. She likes connecting letters.
“It’s kind of fun,” Jacob said. “All the letters are different from all the other letters, and it’s very new.”
“We use Wilson’s in kindergarten and first grade,” Szegedy said. “In second grade we introduce cursive through McGraw-Hill in reading. I went to a meeting on the third grade reading guarantee. I love it. I have such a passion for education and education reforms. Everything is coming together.”
Cursive writing in the United States also can be about personhood.
“Handwriting really is your identity,” Terhar said. “Your signature usually is in cursive.”